§ 71. Mr. Osborneasked the President of the Board of Trade if he has any statement to make on the proposals of the Footwear Distributors' Joint Committee for relaxed controls and reduced coupon values in order to provide cheaper footwear and to clear slow moving stocks.
§ Mr. BelcherWe are studying the proposals referred to, but are not yet in a position to make any statement on them, except to point out that they are largely based on the assumption that footwear production can be maintained at the high level reached during the last six months. Whether the imported raw materials to permit this will be available to us, and whether we can afford the necessary hard currency for a considerable proportion of them, I cannot yet say.